It may have been priceless to Jackie Robinson, but a New York auctioneer hopes to get $400,000 for a Brooklyn Dodgers cap that was specially padded to protect the man who broke baseball’s color barrier from beanball throwing racist pitchers.

The royal-blue “B” cap looks like any other Bums lid of the time, but for the inner lining that’s fortified with a fiberglass-and-cloth composite that gave Robinson some extra protection from pitches aimed at his skull. “It was a special hat for him. It has a helmet liner to protect him from beanings from racist players who would throw the ball at his head,” said Lelands chairman Josh Evans. “This is ancient, early baseball technology.”

The hat is on display at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City this weekend, with hopes to sell it by Sunday. The price tag is a firm but not deal-breaking figure, sellers said. The cap belongs to a private collector who purchased it in the 1990s from widow Rachel Robinson, Evans said.(nypost.com)…[+]